


A Man, a Boy and a Dog

by MissAppropriation



Series: Time War Team [3]
Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Family, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Old Friends, Parent-Child Relationship, Self-Sacrifice, Soldiers, Team as Family, Time War (Doctor Who), Tiny Master
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-07-20 16:13:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19995052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissAppropriation/pseuds/MissAppropriation
Summary: On an average day in the Time War, a soldier meets some very unusual people.Characters: War Doctor, Tiny Master, K9 (briefly), OC. Gen, friendship.





	A Man, a Boy and a Dog

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I decided the team wasn't complete without K-9. :) Third installment, more TWT to come! Enjoy!! :) <3 <3

**A Man, a Boy and a Dog**

Kenna squatted with her comrades in the cold mud of the battlefield. There had been a break in the action but there was no doubt that the Daleks would be back. They had only a few short hours respite during which to choke down some rations and regroup before the next battle.

The War was unwinnable.

Someone had built a fire. The squad was clustering around it, trying to get warm. Laughing and talking and sitting in silence... Just trying to feel close to another person before whatever came next.

Kenna sat apart. She watched them, knowing many of them would be dead in a few hours...

Maybe all of them.

Maybe her, too.

She would fight, of course, with the rest of them. But their best efforts were the equivalent of an insect trying to hold back a flood. They needed _help_. 

They needed a miracle.

But there were no miracles in the Time War.

Kenna was well beyond caring if she survived. All she wanted now was for the War to _end_.

Because every day more people died, more lives were destroyed, more children became orphans.

If the Time War went on for much longer there would be nothing left... Nothing _at all_. No Time Lords, no Daleks, no humans... 

No history, no future...

No Universe.

Kenna knew she wasn't cut out to be a soldier. Unfortunately, that wasn't a choice anyone got to make nowadays.

Kenna finished her meal and sat staring into the middle distance, alone with her thoughts.

Something caught her eye, something out of place.

A few dozen feet away were two people she'd never seen before. 

They didn't seem to be part of the squad. 

They didn't seem to be part of _anything_.

A middle-aged man with a beard, a little boy and a robot dog.

They would have been an odd picture anywhere... But especially on a battlefield.

The man seemed to fit the scene best out of any of them. He had a quiet, calm demeanor but he seemed like a soldier. He wore a battered leather jacket, a knotted scarf and boots with canvas coverings. A strange mix of the romantic and the practical. War gear that was about as far from being a uniform as she could imagine.

The boy, however, did wear what appeared to be a uniform, but not in the military sense. He had a dark suit jacket and shorts, with a brightly-striped tie in shades of scarlet and orange. He wore army-green rubber rain boots which were splattered with mud. The overall impression was as if he had wandered off from a school outing. 

He couldn't be more than seven... This troubled Kenna. Why would anyone take a child into a War?

The robot she had no explanation for. She'd seen plenty of robots but never one in the shape of a dog.

She watched them, intrigued.

They sat together on a rock outcropping. The man was working on some device. Occasionally he would show it to the boy or the dog, seemingly asking for advice. While the man stayed focused on his work, the boy was never still. He was kicking his boots, head swiveling, taking in his surroundings. He didn't seem frightened... Just interested. Maybe a little bored.

Actually, neither of them seemed afraid.

They almost seemed _happy._

It had been a long, long time since Kenna had seen happiness...

She couldn't tear her eyes away.

They seemed to have a brief disagreement over the device. The boy tried to snatch it but the man pulled it out of his reach. The boy looked annoyed briefly, then smiled and dove into the man's pocket, taking out a white bag. He popped a piece of candy into his mouth and grinned obnoxiously at the man. The man gave him a sideways look, smiling fondly, and reached over to ruffle the little boy's brown hair.

The boy smacked the man's hand away, angrily trying to comb his hair back into place with his fingers.

The man - his grandfather, perhaps? - just laughed.

The dog's eye panel lit up red. The boy made a face and kicked the dog. Kenna heard a metallic _clang_ from where she sat.

The man stopped what he was doing to shake his head, clearly reproaching the boy for his behavior. The boy smirked, unrepentant.

A moment later the man got up. He said something to the boy, seemingly instructing him to stay put. The boy gave a mocking salute and continued eating his pilfered candy.

The man walked a few steps, then turned back to take the bag of candy away. The boy spread his arms, wearily annoyed. The man and the robot dog left.

The boy pulled his feet up to sit cross-legged, looking around for something to do.

It only took a few moments for the boy to notice Kenna watching him. He met her eyes and went still for the first time since she'd spotted him. He smiled and held up one finger, beckoning for her to come closer.

Kenna looked back at her squadmates, then at the little boy, all alone... She walked over.

"Hi!" the boy chirped as she came close. "What's your name?"

"I'm Kenna," she smiled. "What's your name?"

He ignored her question.

"Would you help me?" he asked, head cocked to one side.

His manner was strange. He didn't seem to be in need of any help... Kenna regarded him, puzzled. He was even cuter up close. Almost preternaturally so.

She was strangely reminded of old ghost stories. Campfire tales of evil, otherworldly entities disguising themselves as lost children in order to lure victims to their doom.

"Where’d your friend go?" she asked, somewhat unsettled.

The boy shrugged. "Oh, he'll be back soon. So, will you help me?"

"That depends," she replied noncommittally. "What do you need help with?"

He smiled the most adorable smile she'd ever seen. "Come closer, I'll explain it..."

Despite her better instincts, Kenna did step closer. The boy looked up at her, his eyes so blue, like a lake in winter... Half frozen. Deep and cold.

Kenna suddenly realized that she _did_ want to help him... With _anything_ he asked...

"Hello there," came a voice from next to her. She looked over into a pair of the kindest golden-brown eyes. The middle-aged soldier had returned. 

Kenna blinked, shaking her head. She felt like she'd been dreaming about something. But she hadn't been asleep… 

Had she...?

The man and the boy were arguing now, though the man's tone was patient.

"We talked about this," he said.

"What?" the boy grinned back craftily. "We're going to need help, right? I was getting help."

"You could just _ask,_ " the man responded reasonably.

Kenna's eyes moved between the two, perplexed. The boy looked at her, distantly, his expression making his face seem older. As if she was an object. Or a pet. "Now, what fun would that be?" he said.

The man put a hand on Kenna's shoulder, getting her attention back. "What's your name, my dear?"

"Kenna..." she answered. "Who are you two? What are you doing here?"

"We're here to help," the man replied with a smile. He pointed at the metal dog. "This is K-9. And you've already met the Master." The little boy waved, still eyeing her like a piece of meat. Kenna shivered.

"We're looking for something," the man said. "Are you familiar with this area?"

"Yeah..." Kenna tore her gaze away from the boy. Her eyes seemed to keep wandering back to him of their own accord. "I grew up on the other side of that hill. It's changed quite a bit…” she said, bitterness creeping into her tone as she thought about the War. “But… Yeah, I know the area. What is it you're looking for?"

"It's a building," the man said. "A sort of relay station... It would be very old."

The boy rolled his eyes impatiently. "She doesn't need to know all that."

"I'm just trying to explain," the man said, oddly justifying himself to the child.

"You're taking too long," the boy said dismissively. "We're in a hurry, remember? Let me." He addressed Kenna. "What's a place near here that everyone talks about but everyone stays away from?"

Kenna knew immediately. They'd all grown up with stories of that place. Being dared to go inside was a local right of passage. Or had been, before the Daleks came. "There's this building, like a shed. No one knows how long it's been there, but -"

"Great," the boy interrupted, hopping down and shooting an _I told you so_ glance in the man's direction. "Take us there."

Kenna made a face. "I can't."

"Why?" the boy demanded, clearly displeased by her answer.

"I'm a soldier. We're in the middle of a War." Kenna couldn't believe she even had to explain this. But her words seemed to make no impression at all on the boy. "The Daleks are about to attack! I can't just go AWOL."

" _See_ , Doctor?" the boy said to the man with a superior look. "I was _right._ You shouldn't have stopped me." He waved it off. "It's ok, I'll just start over..."

The man moved to position himself between Kenna and the boy. "Now then, no need for that. Kenna, would you point me in the direction of your superior officer? I'm sure we can explain the situation."

Kenna indicated the leader of her squad.

"You have no imagination," the boy told the man disgustedly.

"Stay here," the man instructed. He looked between Kenna and the boy. "And behave, please."

The boy's eyes traveled back to Kenna and he smiled a disquietingly inhuman smile. "You know I can't promise that."

Kenna watched the man walk over to her squad leader and pull out a small wallet, obviously credentials. She glanced back at the boy. He saw her looking and winked, enjoying her discomfort.

Kenna's squad commander waved her over. It seemed that the strange man had some level of authority. Her commander gave her permission to go on an independent mission with the soldier.

The boy got tired of waiting and trotted over as the conversation ended.

"All set?" he asked.

The man nodded, pleased. "See? My way works, too."

The boy rolled his eyes but he was smiling. "Your way is _boring._ "

"Alright then, my dear, if you wouldn't mind leading the way?" the man said to Kenna, with a casually gallant gesture.

Kenna was torn. "But, my squad -"

"You can do more for them by coming with us, I promise," the man said sincerely. "What do you say?"

"Say _no_..." the boy dared her with a grin.

"Stop it," the man smiled. "Don't listen to him, he just likes making trouble."

The boy laughed, clearly pleased by this assessment.

"We're going to try to stop the Daleks," the man told her. "Would you like to help?"

It was phrased as an invitation. 

Kenna looked at the man. Something about him was so reassuring. But there was more than that... She made an instinctive decision. "Alright. It's this way."

She and the soldier led the way towards the hut. He chatted pleasantly with her, as if the world wasn't about to end. The man kept turning periodically to check that the boy, the Master, was following. He would catch up with them, then turn to run back and argue with the robot dog. 

They didn't seem to be getting along.

The man turned around, seeing the boy was lagging behind. There was concern in his kind eyes. "Come here, leave him alone."

The boy sighed angrily and stomped up to the man, shaking his head. "He is _so slow_ ," he complained. "Couldn't you make him any faster?"

The man took the boy's hand and continued walking. "He's fine, he'll catch up."

She had to ask. "So you're... What, his grandfather?"

The boy peeked at her from the man's other side, glaring. "Why does _everyone_ assume that? We're the _same age._ "

The man shook his head, sighing. They'd clearly had this conversation before. "We're not the same age."

"We're _basically_ the same age," the boy asserted.

"I'm _definitely_ older than you," the man said. "Are you forgetting that you were dead for a few hundred years?"

Kenna was slightly sorry she'd asked. And both of her companions seemed to have forgotten she was even there at all. She could see she wasn't going to get an actual answer to her question.

Kenna watched them curiously. They continued bickering. Like old friends. Like equals.

The boy didn't seem quite like a child and the man didn't seem _quite_ like an adult... They both seemed to be stuck somewhere in the middle, in some limbo they'd created for themselves. Where no one else was allowed.

"You're Time Lords, aren't you?" she realized.

The man turned to look at her. "Yes, actually." He seemed worried for a moment. "Is that alright with you?"

Kenna knew people who blamed the Time Lords for the War, more even than the Daleks. 

Kenna was far past caring about who was to blame. 

Whoever's responsibility it was, the War was _here._ Arguing about who was most at fault wouldn't change that.

"Sure," she shrugged. "You're the first Time Lords I've ever met..." The Time Lords didn't show up to fight with the lesser species of the Universe. "Are they all like you?"

The Master laughed, kicking at rocks as he walked.

"Ah, no," the man admitted. "Not really."

Kenna saw the shed come into view. She pointed it out. "There." She hadn't been here in years. It was as strange as she remembered. A building which almost seemed to grow out of the rock itself.

It gave her a weird feeling, a prickly crawling up her spine... Like someone walking over her grave. 

It made everyone feel that way.

The two Time Lords seemed completely at ease, however. The boy broke away and ran ahead, the man shouting after him to be careful as he followed.

Kenna had to force her feet to move after them. It was like this place wanted to push her away. She gritted her teeth and put one foot in front of the other, taking a deep breath as she entered the building.

The feeling receded for the most part as she stepped inside. But the vague, uneasy sensation of being out of place remained. As if she didn't belong here.

It was one room, featureless. Tiny and empty. The man was examining the walls. The boy stood in the middle of the room, looking around analytically, his eyes sharp, perceptive.

"What are you looking for?" Kenna wondered aloud.

"There's an entrance here somewhere, if we can just find it," the man responded absently.

"Entrance to what?" Kenna asked.

Neither of them replied. She stood back, deciding to let them work.

The robot dog rolled into the building, coming to a halt next to her. "You alright?" she asked.

"This unit is fully operational," it responded, wire tail wagging.

Kenna smiled to herself. That's what she got for trying to make small talk with a robot. She went back to watching the two Time Lords.

The boy closed his eyes, concentrating. Tilting his head as if listening for something. Suddenly he opened his eyes and dropped to the stone floor. "Doctor," he beckoned. "Here."

The man joined him, pulling out a slim, pen-like device. They knelt on the floor together searching for something.

Suddenly there was a smooth click, and a section of the solid stone floor slid out of sight.

The boy stood up. He and the man looked at each other with identically mischievous smiles. "After you," the Master said.

"Keep an eye out, K-9," the man instructed. 

"Affirmative!" the dog agreed, turning to position himself in the doorway.

The man slipped into the hatch. The Master sat on the edge, quirked an eyebrow at Kenna. "Coming?" he smiled.

He dropped out of sight.

Kenna turned to look out the doorway, back towards her squad. It wasn't as if it was any safer out there. So where could she accomplish more? 

The man, the Doctor, had said it was here.

She chose to believe him. 

She went to the trapdoor and slipped inside, landing about seven feet below in a very strange chamber.

It was made out of the same stone as the building above, but the walls were covered with weird shapes and designs, clearly not naturally formed.

The illumination that filled the room was coming not from any lamps or torches but from the walls themselves. The light moved, shifted, like a living thing, never staying in one place for more than a moment. It was as if the stone would fade to translucency, letting an unearthly radiance shine through from somewhere unknown, then the rock would solidify back into existence.

It was _beautiful_.

Kenna was so distracted by the chamber itself that at first she didn't even notice the fixture in the center.

It was a machine of some kind, growing from the stone floor into the ceiling. The same light that was in the walls emanated from within the machine.

Kenna had never seen anything like it. It was incredible, otherworldly... Awe-inspiring.

The two Time Lords were examining it, discussing the device in oddly pragmatic tones. Like this was just another Tuesday for them.

"What is that?" Kenna asked.

The Master gave her a sidelong glance. "Go deal with your human," he said to his friend, loud enough so Kenna could hear him.

"You found her, why is she _mine_?" the man asked amusedly.

"You're the one who's always collecting them," the Master shrugged, focused on the machine.

"Still here," Kenna muttered, mostly to herself. Maybe she should have stayed upstairs with the dog. At least he would have answered her.

The man walked over to her. "Sit down," he said. She moved to do so and he stopped her with just a hint of panic. "No, not there!"

She moved over a couple of feet, eyeing him uncertainly.

He looked around the room. "That should be alright. Just... Try not to lean against the walls."

"What happens if I lean against the wall?" Kenna asked worriedly.

"I'm not sure, but ah... I don't think it would be good." He sat down next to her, smiled. "So, you have questions?"

Kenna nodded towards the machine. "What is that? What's this room for?" She stared at it. "That's not Dalek tech..." The Daleks weren't capable of creating anything beautiful.

"No," he confirmed. "No, the Daleks didn't build this. It's far older than the Daleks."

She was interested. "So who built it?"

He smiled at her, eyes sparkling enthusiastically. "We're actually not entirely sure."

"But what's it for?" Kenna wondered.

He had to think a moment. "It's a sort of... Temporal relay station."

Kenna knew the words individually but didn't understand what they meant when strung together in that order. "And what does that mean?"

He kept talking. "This building, this place is built on a natural intersection of temporal-spacial faultlines. Cracks in Time," he clarified.

Kenna looked at him, alarmed. "That doesn't sound good."

"They're tiny, they're everywhere," he assured her, as if that should be comforting. "The Universe is full of them. It would be nothing to worry about except that the Daleks want to use them."

"So, this machine..." she prompted.

"Communicates with the other cracks, the natural splintering of the Universe," he finished for her.

"What are the Daleks going to do, if they get it?" Kenna frowned.

"Potentially..." the man said. "Destroy the multiverse."

She looked from the boy, busy with the machine, back to the man. This was why they were here. "So what are _you_ going to do?"

"Oh, uh..." He grinned at her. "We're going to blow it up!"

Kenna looked at the machine, at the white light traveling through the walls. "What a shame..." she said sadly. The man glanced at her, questioning. "It's just so beautiful," she explained.

He turned back to the machine, taking a moment to appreciate it. His eyes held a childlike wonder. "It is, isn't it?" he agreed happily.

From his place at the machine in question, the boy rolled his eyes melodramatically. "Wrap it up, will you?" he grumbled. "I could use a hand here... Sometime _today_."

The man narrowed his eyes and shook his head, looking just slightly annoyed for the first time since Kenna had met him. But his patient demeanor quickly returned. "Any other questions?" he asked Kenna, clearly eager to join his friend.

"Isn't it dangerous, blowing this up?" Kenna asked, concerned.

"Uhh..." the man said, thinking. "Yes. Very." He saw the fear in Kenna's eyes and winked at her. "Which is why we're doing it _carefully_."

She looked at the two of them and crossed her arms, suddenly suspicious. "You _do_ know what you're doing... Right?"

"Of course!" he assured her. 

He was _almost_ convincing.

A movement caught her eye behind the man's back. Kenna saw the boy was shaking his head and mouthing, _No, he doesn't!_

The man saw her watching and turned around, just a second too late. The boy was again focused on the machine. He glanced up, meeting the man's gaze innocently. "What?" he asked.

The man sat there for a moment, shaking his head at the boy, his expression complex and hard to read. The boy tried to keep a straight face for a moment. Then he gave up and giggled impishly.

The boy went back to his work, still laughing. Kenna shook her head in disbelief. _These_ were the Time Lords? The arch-enemies of the Daleks? It was _absurd_. They were behaving like children on a playground.

As if to confirm this assessment, the man picked up a pebble and threw it at his friend. Smirking, the boy dodged out of the way easily without even looking up.

And although this interaction had taken the form of insults, mockery and half-hearted pebble attacks, it had somehow been thoroughly heartwarming to witness. The affection expressed in the conflict was impossible to miss.

And they both seemed to have forgotten about her again. "Ok... Anything I can do to help?" Kenna asked, suppressing a smile.

The man blinked at her. "Not at the moment. You can go back to your squad, if you'd like," he told her.

She thought about her squad, thought about the battles, thought about how she had never fit in with the rest of them. "I never wanted to be a soldier, you know." she confided in the man. The boy sighed loudly and rudely. Kenna ignored him. "I'm... Not very good at it."

The man seemed to sympathize. "Life doesn't always give us the choices we want," he said resignedly. He eyed Kenna, curious. "What would you have done, if the Daleks had never come here?"

"I don't know..." Kenna admitted. "My parents were farmers."

"That's a good life." He said it without even a trace of irony. Again, not what Kenna would have expected from the high and mighty Time Lords.

She shrugged. She was a terrible soldier but knew she wouldn't have made a very good farmer either. "It wasn't top of my list but..." She pictured it. She pictured not being alone. "Yeah, it could have been, with the right people. My family are all gone," she explained in response to the man's questioning look. "My parents, my brothers and sisters. The Daleks killed them all, that first day."

She glanced towards the boy. He had stopped, watching her out of the corners of his eyes, expression unreadable. He saw her looking and went back to his task without a word.

She turned back to the soldier. He squinted at her, an enigmatic glint in his eyes. "You know, when we blow this up and close the faultlines... The shockwave _should_ reset the timeline."

"What timeline?" Kenna asked, not quite believing what he seemed to be implying.

"Your planet's timeline is still in flux," the man told her. "The Daleks only came here because of this device. They won't have any reason to come back after it's destroyed. They should leave you in peace."

"Wait..." Kenna closed her eyes, trying to process this information. "Are you saying... Are you saying you could _save_ my family?" Kenna opened her eyes, searching for a truth she didn't dare to hope for.

Because if this man was lying to her she would kill him herself.

But no. He was clearly as hopeful as she was about this potential outcome.

"Not just your family," he assured her. "Your whole planet. You can all live the lives you were supposed to live."

"But..." Kenna shook her head, not even sure what to say. " _How_?"

"Time War, remember?" the man said gently. "This is still an unstable timeline, for now. Sometimes that can be a good thing."

She put her hands to her face, her brain hurting, her emotions churning. "You're talking about changing my entire life."

"Changing it _back_ ," he clarified. "Yes."

"But this is all I've ever known," she said, frowning helplessly.

"No," the boy chimed in. "The Daleks only found this place, what... Thirty-five, forty minutes ago?"

"More or less, yes," the man agreed.

"But..." Kenna frowned. "They've been here since I was a little girl. My whole life."

The boy rolled his eyes. " _Time travel_. Honestly, Doctor, do you pick the stupid ones _on purpose_?"

"Be nice," the man reprimanded him mildly.

"What would I be, in this new timeline?" Kenna had to wonder.

"Whatever you want," the man shrugged happily. As if the sky was the limit. As if anyone could truly be _anything_ they wanted.

The boy gave the man a look, summoned him with a word. "Doctor."

The message was clear: Time's up.

The man stood, but hovered for a moment, taking one more second to check on Kenna. "You alright?"

"Yeah, fine..." she said. She really _wasn't_ of course, but there were larger forces at play here. "Go, work. Let me know if I can do anything."

As the man moved to join his friend at the machine, the boy tracked him with his eyes, a distinctly unchildlike expression on his face. His eyebrows were raised humoringly but he was shaking his head slightly. Aggravated. Wearily unsurprised.

"What?" the man asked, meeting his gaze as he came to stand next to the machine.

The boy scoffed. "Nothing..."

They continued talking, bickering, trading opinions and technical concepts. Kenna let her mind wander as she watched them.

She thought about her family, her brothers and sisters, her parents...

What had they all been in that other timeline, the one the Daleks had destroyed?

Would her parents still be alive? Would her siblings have had children? Would they have stayed close or grown apart?

And who would _she_ have been?

Somehow, she couldn't picture that.

She realized the two Time Lords had gotten louder, seemed to be arguing for real now.

The man held up one forefinger in a _wait a minute_ gesture, which seemed to infuriate the boy, and walked over to the hatch in the ceiling. "K-9?" he called out.

"Master?" came the robot's immediate response.

"How far away are the Dalek ships?" he asked, eyeing the boy, making sure he was listening to the answer.

There was a whirring sound from above. "Dalek vessels will be arriving in approximately forty-nine minutes, master."

The man held up his hands and moved quickly back to the machine. "Plenty of time!"

The boy bluntly disagreed. "It's _not_."

"I can do it," the man said, poking his head around from the far side of the machine and then promptly disappearing again.

"You _can't,_ " the boy contradicted him.

"What's wrong?" Kenna asked.

The man's head appeared again. He sighed. "In order to close the faultlines safely we'll need to do a bit more work."

The boy shook his head. "It's not possible, not in that timeframe."

"I think it is," the man said, obviously just guessing. Or hoping.

"You _think_?" the boy exclaimed. "It's ready to go _now_. You know it is."

"Is it?" Kenna asked, looking at the man. He avoided her gaze. But the boy nodded. "So what happens if you blow it now?"

The boy answered first, coldly, matter-of-fact. "Your planet gets obliterated."

Kenna just shook her head at him. "Well, that's not ok!"

The boy shrugged, unconcerned. "It would take out _a lot_ of Daleks with it."

"But you can still fix it," Kenna protested. "The Daleks are over forty-five minutes away!"

"It doesn't matter," the boy declared flatly. "It's _hours_ of work." He turned back to the man who was a nonstop blur of activity. "You can't do it. _No one_ could do it."

"There's two of us," he said, stopping for just a moment to reason with his friend. "Help me, we can do it together," he requested.

The boy narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. "No," he decided. He walked over to sit down next to Kenna, crossing his arms stubbornly. "I'm not helping you. This is _stupid_."

"Come on," the man pleaded. Not desperate, not worried, not angry... More as if the boy had walked away from a half-finished game they'd been playing together.

There was such a hopeful artlessness in his face.

Kenna couldn't imagine how anyone could refuse that plea.

But the boy was apparently unmoved.

"No," he said again. "We're _done_. We finished it, it'll _work_. You can do whatever you want for the next half hour... But then we're _leaving_."

It was strange to hear this child giving his apparent elder an ultimatum.

Stranger still, the man seemed to accept it. He nodded and sprang back into action.

They'd somehow flipped. The boy was now in charge. The man had taken the role of the child who needed looking after.

It had happened so quickly, so naturally, that Kenna couldn't even tell when the change had occurred.

She wondered if they did this all the time.

She wondered if it was as confusing for them as it was for her.

"Seriously?" she said in a hushed tone to the boy next to her. "You're just totally ok with letting my whole planet explode?"

He was watching the man work. He spared just a moment's glance at Kenna out of the corner of his ice-blue eyes. "Sort of, yes," he said, unapologetically. He nodded in the direction of his friend, a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "But _he's_ not."

"So _help_ ," Kenna said. "He's your friend, right? Go help him!"

The boy shook his head as if she was being slow. "I _am_ helping him. Watch."

Kenna didn't understand. "Watch what?"

" _Him_ ," the boy said, his gaze glued to the man. "Just watch."

"But..." Kenna frowned at the boy. "You said it was impossible."

"It _is_ ," he told her, his tone leaving no room for doubt. "And now, he's going to _do_ it."

"How?" Kenna asked.

The boy chuckled. "I have no idea." There was pride in his eyes, clear and unmistakable. "But he will."

Kenna was baffled, intrigued. These two strangers were both so odd. "So... You."

He shot her a condescending look. "What about me?"

She sized him up. So small, so assertive, so self-possessed. She could see the years in his eyes even though his face was so young. "You're not _really_ a kid... Right?"

He smiled a bit. "No, I am."

She shook her head, realizing he was only going to answer the precise question she asked. "But you didn't used to be?"

"No," he conceded. "I was. Then I wasn't. Now I am again." He gave her an obnoxious smirk. "Don't hurt yourself. I know it's confusing."

Kenna thought about trying to go from being an adult to being a child again. "I would think so, yeah..." she muttered under her breath. "So is that like, a normal Time Lord thing?"

He snorted. "No, not at all. But we're hardly 'normal' Time Lords."

Kenna was pretty sure they weren't normal _anything_. 

"So," she said awkwardly, "you like being a kid?"

He nodded, emphatic, his expression suddenly matching his child's face again. "Yeah, it's _awesome_ ." He lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "People let you get away with _so much stuff_ when you're a kid." His eyes traveled back to the man. "He basically lets me do whatever I want," he snickered.

"And..." Kenna was still struggling with this dynamic. What were they, before this parent/child format? "Before... He didn't?"

This made the boy stop and think. "Huh. Interesting point..." he said.

They both watched the man silently for a few minutes. "Who is he, though?" Kenna asked. "You called him _Doctor_?"

"Yes, but don't call him that. He gets upset." He gave Kenna a disgusted, helpless shrug and shook his head despairingly.

"He didn't seem upset when you called him that," Kenna pointed out.

"Yeah, but..." He smiled, so smug. "That's _me_. He knows he can't stop _me_."

"So who is he then?" Kenna asked again, determined to get an answer.

The boy took a deep breath, his eyes going distant. "He's the one who's going to _win_ this War," he said. He turned to Kenna, his small face serious. "I hope you little maggots appreciate him... Because you'd all be _dead_ without him. A thousand million times over." He looked back at the man, the Doctor. Like he didn't want to miss anything. Like he couldn't wait to see what might happen next. "For some reason he _cares_ about you. _All_ of you," He laughed, like it was the funniest joke ever. "It's ridiculous!"

"You're wrong," Kenna said.

The boy turned to face her, giving a slow blink as if he couldn't believe what he had just heard. "Excuse me?"

"No one can win this War," Kenna told him.

"Oh, you're absolutely right," he agreed.

Kenna frowned, surprised. She thought for a moment that he was being sarcastic. But he _wasn't_.

" _No one_ can win this War," the boy said. " _No one_ can defeat the Daleks." He was lecturing her, though this was the same opinion she had expressed. "It's impossible."

"Exactly," Kenna agreed.

"And I'm telling you... He's going to _do_ it. You don't know him. I _do_. I've seen him do so many things that should have been impossible, I've actually lost count. I don't lose count of stuff easily," he informed her loftily.

Kenna shook her head, trying to find a response.

The Master seemed happy to keep talking regardless. "The Daleks are unbeatable, yes. So is _he_. And the Daleks _have_ been defeated before. He _hasn't_. Not ever.” He frowned thoughtfully. “Not really."

Kenna gave him a dubious look. "Don't you think you're overselling him a bit?"

"Just the opposite, actually," he informed her. "It would take me _days_ to explain how incredible he is." He squinted at the man on the other side of the room. "Don't tell him I said that," he requested uncomfortably.

"And you?" Kenna asked. Where did he fit into this story? Because he didn't seem the type to give up credit easily.

His answer was somewhat unexpected. "I'm just along for the ride, honestly," he admitted. "Trying to keep him alive long enough to win. He's amazing, but he's also _so stupid_. He does some really dumb stuff when I'm not there to stop him."

Kenna chuckled as she figured out what he was saying. "So... _You're_ taking care of _him_?"

"Sometimes," he confirmed. "When I have to."

Kenna looked back at the Doctor. "Does _he_ know that?"

"That I'm taking care of him?" The Master stopped to consider, his gaze distant. "Maybe," he said. "He doesn't know that he's going to _win_ though... Idiot," he finished with a snicker.

A thought struck Kenna. Because these were _Time Lords_. "How long have you two been friends?"

"Ooh..." He huffed out a breath and blinked. "A _long_ time..."

That told her nothing. "What's a long time, for a Time Lord?"

He smirked at her, delighted by her ignorance. "How long ago did your people settle on this planet?"

"About three hundred years ago," she told him.

He looked at her with those ancient, terrifying eyes. "Not even close," he smiled.

They both sat in silence for a while, watching the soldier, the Doctor, as he worked. Though Kenna had no idea what was happening, there was still something undeniably beautiful and fascinating about it. It was the perfect balance of purpose and chaos. Like watching a forest grow, watching water from a stream navigate over an obstacle. Half random but somehow making sense in a way she could only begin to appreciate. 

The Master, however, clearly understood everything the Doctor was doing. He followed every instant of uncertainty, every flicker of movement as if he was reading a novel. He was completely absorbed in the scene, his face shifting through emotions in response to the wins and losses and roadblocks the Doctor encountered.

Kenna found herself torn between which of them to watch.

"You really think he can win?" she asked eventually.

"I _know_ it," the Master asserted. "And he's the only one in the Universe who can."

And this time, Kenna actually believed him.

"Done!" The man held his arms up triumphantly, clapped his hands together and looked at his friend excitedly. "Finished!"

The boy leaned in towards Kenna as he stood up. "Told you," he said quietly. He strolled over to the machine, shaking his head. "You _can't_ have fixed it..." he stated loudly.

"Come and see for yourself," the Doctor invited. He walked over to the hatch above, called upwards. "K-9, Dalek ETA?"

"Eight minutes until Dalek fleet enters the atmosphere," came the response.

"Perfect," the man nodded. "Alright, K-9, head back to the TARDIS. You know what to do."

"Affirmative, master." The mechanical whirring of the dog's engines moves off and faded out of earshot.

"Doctor..." The boy was examining the machine. He looked unhappy. "What did you do to the timer?"

The man grimaced, like he was in trouble, moved over to stand next to his friend. "Umm, there wasn't really a way to rig it safely..."

"No." The boy glared upwards. " _No_ , Doctor."

"I might be fine," the man said unconvincingly.

"This whole _place_ is going to go up!" the boy said irately. He pointed at the ceiling. "Use the dog!"

The man gave him a sober look. "Are you forgetting the hours we spent programming him with the calculations we need to make this work?"

The boy turned away angrily, hands to his head, thinking.

"You need someone to stay and activate the bomb, don't you?" Kenna spoke up.

The boy seemed to remember she was there. He surveyed her with narrow, calculating eyes. "Yes, and he wants it to be _him_ ," he said. His tone was distant, distracted.

The man saw them looking at each other and seemed wary. He gave the boy a warning look. The Master rolled his eyes and turned away from Kenna. "I have a better chance than either of you of surviving," the man explained, still watching his friend.

The boy shot him a dismissive glare. "None of us has _any_ chance and you know it."

"Just go with Kenna and K-9," the man said. "It'll be fine. I'll figure something out!" He seemed like he believed it. 

But the boy wasn't convinced.

The Master planted both his feet on the stone floor and crossed his arms, scowling ferociously. It would have been terrifying if it hadn't been so adorable." _No_ ," he declared, like he was laying down a new Law of the Universe. "I'm _not_ leaving. You leave with me, or we _both_ explode."

The man knelt down to his eye level. "Now, don't be like that..."

The boy had tears of rage in his eyes now. "You blow yourself up for _nothing_..."

"No, not for nothing -" the man tried to break in.

The boy ignored him and kept talking, his voice rising in anger. "And what then? What about _me_?"

"We have to stop them," the man said steadily. "You know we do. If they win here today, that's _it_."

"So, undo it!" the boy shouted. "Fix the timer!"

The man just shook his head. His expression was sad but there was a light in his eyes. "I'm not blowing up the planet," he said. "Not when there's another option. We can save _everyone_ the Daleks killed here. How often does that happen?"

The Master looked at the man and his expression softened, seeing how much this mattered to his friend. He saw he couldn't just argue the man out of this, not without paying an unacceptable price.

And for one moment he was just _sad._

Then, abruptly, he was angry again. His head went down, he screwed his eyes shut, clenched his tiny fists. The man reached out to him, held his arms, gently. The boy's shoulders went up defensively in response. "I _hate_ you," he ground out between clenched teeth. "And I'm _not leaving_."

Kenna felt a wave of rage, fear, panic... But weirdly, she knew it wasn't _hers_. She shook it off.

"So, I'll do it," Kenna said calmly. The Time Lords both turned to look at her. It was so obvious. She was honestly surprised neither of them had suggested it. "It's easy, right? Just pressing a button. I can handle pressing a button."

"Good idea," the Master sniffed with a sideways glance at the man next to him. "Maybe not so stupid after all..." His eyes were still teary as he looked at Kenna. The words were somewhat harsh but she saw relief, _gratitude_... Just for a moment. 

She smiled at him kindly. 

He turned away, ashamed, wiping at his eyes with his sleeve.

The man, meanwhile, seemed unsure about her proposal. "Kenna..."

The boy sprang into action. He spun back around, grabbing the man's hand with both of his own, trying to drag him towards the door. "Come on, problem solved. Let's _go_ , Doctor."

The man stood his ground, unhurried. "I need to be sure she understands." 

The boy continued tugging at his friend's hand. He rolled his eyes. "She's a _human,_ not an ogron... She understands! Come _on_."

"Kenna, you'll die," the man said.

She laughed a little. "I was listening, yeah."

"I can't ask you to do that," he said sincerely.

She snuck a look at the Master. He was just standing there now, clinging to his friend's arm. "You _didn't_..." Kenna smiled. She looked back at the Doctor. "You _should_ have... Why didn't you?" she asked curiously. "Is that against the rules or something?"

"Not exactly, no..." the man replied vaguely.

The Master broke in with a more direct answer. "He didn't ask because he knew you'd say _yes_."

Kenna turned her gaze back to the man, saw it was true. "So... What?" she asked wryly. "You're the only one who's allowed to sacrifice yourself?"

The Master laughed, delighted. The Doctor gave him a mildly reproachful look. "What?" the boy said. "She _gets_ you."

Kenna remembered their earlier conversation. She wanted to make certain she knew the results of her choice. "The timeline, though... You said it would reset?"

The Doctor shook his head and Kenna felt a stab of despair. "Not for whoever pushes the button. This is the eye of the storm."

Kenna sighed in relief. He'd misunderstood the reason for her question. He assumed she was still worried about her own life. But there were things so much more important than merely living. "But my family, they'd be ok? They'd be alive again?"

He blinked at her. There was a wondering admiration in his eyes. "Yes..." he confirmed.

"Then it's worth it," Kenna said. She meant it.

"You're sure?" he asked. It was like he knew the answer but he just had to _hear_ it.

She thought for just a moment. "Yeah," she said. It was actually the most sure she'd ever been of _anything_ her whole life. She tried to explain, to make him understand. "I worried I'd never be able to make a difference in this War. _This_ will make a difference." Then she realized he already _did_ understand. Because of course he did. "Wouldn't you do the same," she asked honestly, "to save _everyone_?"

The man looked down at the stone floor. The boy watched him, concerned. The man raised his eyes again. "I didn't bring you here to die," the Doctor told her, staring at her sadly.

"I know," she assured him. "It's ok." She laughed. It was such a silly conversation for two soldiers to be having. "I'm pretty sure I was going to die today anyway," she shrugged.

"Thank you, Kenna," the Doctor said.

Kenna's eyes traveled to the boy. He understood, nodded slightly. Kenna smiled at the Doctor, imagining a future after the Time War for the first time since the Daleks had arrived. "No, thank you, Doctor."

The man was perplexed, seemed to be on the verge of asking another question. 

The boy interrupted, pulling at his friend again. "Ok, this is all very beautiful and touching, but we have Daleks incoming. Time to go. _Now._ " 

Kenna nodded in agreement. "I'll give you as much time as I can to get clear," she told them.

Finally, with one last look as if to memorize her face, the Doctor turned away. There was a control panel on the wall. He pressed it, revealing a tunnel leading out of the chamber.

The Master, equanimity restored, paused to wave casually, as if they'd run into each other on the street in a small town, had paused to discuss the weather. "Nice meeting you, Kenna."

"You too," she laughed. "Hey!" she called as he turned away. "Kill a few for me?"

He grinned. There was a violent light in his blue eyes. "Definitely," he promised.

And then they were gone.

Kenna shuddered. The Doctor might be the one to ultimately win the War but Kenna was sure the Master would wreak plenty of havoc between now and then.

If the Daleks hadn't been... Well, _Daleks_ , Kenna would have almost felt sorry for them...

What a difference a few hours had made.

Kenna was alone with her thoughts for only a couple of minutes before the Daleks showed up.

"Stand away!" the Dalek screamed raucously.

Kenna didn't move. "You know something?" she mused to the monstrosity. "I wasn't a very good soldier. I cared too much, I didn't follow orders very well..."

"These words are irrelevant!" the Dalek opined.

"No," Kenna retorted, "they're _very_ relevant. Because _you_ brought the War here. Because you're about to be killed by someone who never even wanted to _fight_. And guess what happens after that?" she smiled.

The eyestalk twitched spastically. She had made it nervous. "You have a strategy. Explain. Explain!"

Kenna shook her head. "No strategy, not really... Just trying to keep the people alive who _actually_ have a shot at beating you." She wished she could send out a message to the rest of the Universe to do the same. She wished she could tell _everyone_ what she'd learned today.

That there was actually _hope_.

"Which individuals are these?" the Dalek demanded.

"Just some people I met," she teased. She just wanted to buy them a couple more minutes... And though her heart was beating a thousand miles a minute, she wasn't afraid anymore. She probably _should_ have been, facing down a Dalek, but things looked so different now that she knew the end of the story. "Turns out, I was wrong, all this time. I thought we didn't stand a chance against you. And I was right about that... But I was wrong because I thought that meant that _no one_ could stop you."

The Dalek predictably had an opinion about that as well. "The Daleks cannot be defeated!"

"Not by me, maybe," Kenna conceded. She had about as much chance as the rest of the Universe, generally speaking. That is, none at all. "But _he's_ going to beat you..." she told the Dalek. "He's going to win the War..." It still sounded impossible but she knew it was true. "I'm about to die. And I'm ok with that. But you..." She shook her head at the hate-filled death machine, feeling an odd pity. "You're already dead and you don't even know it yet."

"Who?" More Daleks had arrived, crowding into the small chamber. "Who are you speaking of?" They clamored. "Tell us! Tell us! Speak!"

And then Kenna realized... They were _afraid_. She hadn't even known Daleks could be afraid. She laughed. The whole Universe had flipped on its head today. "Oh, I think you already know who I'm talking about... Don't you?"

They spun their grotesque eyestalks towards each other, weapons twitching.

"He was here," she told them, savoring their obvious discomfort. "He's gotten away by now. He's safe. Gone on to beat you somewhere else in the Universe."

"You will tell us this person's name!" the closest Dalek screamed, raising its deadly gun threateningly.

Kenna ran her thumb over the control box behind her back. "You want to hear his name? Fine." She stepped closer, looking the Dalek right in the eye. "His name... Is the Doctor."

Kenna pressed the button.

The Daleks died in fear. 

Kenna died smiling.

And Time reset. 

The Daleks lost every inch of ground they had gained that day. 

Kenna's planet lived on in peace.

And somewhere out in space, a blue box hurtled through the stars, on its way to the next battle.

_The End_

**Author's Note:**

> Who got the significance of the Master's tie? Anyone? ;)


End file.
